C++ Inheritance

In object-oriented programming, inheritance is the mechanism of basing an object or class upon another object (prototype-based inheritance) or class (class-based inheritance), retaining similar implementation. An inherited class is called a subclass of its parent class or super class. The term "inheritance" is loosely used for both class-based and prototype-based programming.

In C++ when creating a superclass we can inherit it using : when defining child class.

C++ Inheritance Example

First let's take below example a try to change it to use inheritance.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

class Car {        
 public:              
    string color;        
    string make;         
    string model;
 public:             
    string getColorAsMessage() { 
      return "My color is: " + color;
    }
};

class Truck {        
 public:              
    string color;        
    string make;         
    string model;
};


int main() {
  Car newCar;  

  newCar.color = "Red";
  newCar.make = "BMW";
  newCar.model = "X5";

  cout << newCar.getColorAsMessage() << "\n"; 
  cout << newCar.make << "\n"; 
  
  
  Truck newTruck;  

  newTruck.color = "White";
  newTruck.make = "Chevy";
  newTruck.model = "Silverado";

  cout << newCar.color << "\n"; 
  cout << newCar.make << "\n"; 
  return 0;
}

In the above example you can see how we have same attributes in both classes: Car, Truck. so we decided to create a parent class called Vehicle and we moved all attributes and methods to Vehicle class and we inherited it using keyword: : public Vehicle

Usage of inheritance in C++ for above example

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
using namespace std;

class Vehicle {
 public:              
    string color;        
    string make;         
    string model;
 public:             
    string getColorAsMessage() { 
      return "My color is: " + color;
    }
};

class Car : public Vehicle {      // here we are inheriting class Vehicle  

};

class Truck : public Vehicle {    // here we are inheriting class Vehicle     

};


int main() {
  Car newCar;  

  newCar.color = "Red";
  newCar.make = "BMW";
  newCar.model = "X5";

  cout << newCar.getColorAsMessage() << "\n"; 
  cout << newCar.make << "\n"; 
  
  
  Truck newTruck;  

  newTruck.color = "White";
  newTruck.make = "Chevy";
  newTruck.model = "Silverado";

  cout << newTruck.getColorAsMessage() << "\n"; 
  cout << newTruck.make << "\n"; 
  return 0;
}

Output

My color is: Red
BMW
My color is: White
Chevy

Conclusion

In this page (written and validated by A. Gawali) you learned about C++ Inheritance . What's Next? If you are interested in completing Cpp tutorial, your next topic will be learning about: Cpp Function Overriding.

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